Noah Feldman, Columnist

Harvey Weinstein’s Half-Conviction Is a Full Win for Prosecutors

The charge he was acquitted of is what allowed the testimony that most damaged him.

February 24, 2020 at 8:45 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

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Don’t let the appearance of a split verdict in the Harvey Weinstein case mislead you: the prosecutors’ decision to charge Weinstein with being a serial sexual predator was a success despite the jury’s decision to acquit on those charges — even as it convicted him of two felony sex crimes, including rape.

The strategic advantage of charging Weinstein as a predator was always that it would enable the prosecution to introduce more evidence, including evidence of sexual assaults from women who were not the primary victims in this case. That extra testimony very likely contributed to the jury’s decision to convict Weinstein on two felony charges. It bolstered the primary victims’ testimony, notwithstanding the absence of physical evidence and other challenges associated with their cases.